Lorem Ipsum

I don't have time to post all of the interesting news I've heard about today (human therapeutic cloning in South Korea? Ken and Barbie break up? Final Nebula ballot announced?), but I'm so thrilled with this one item that I can't wait to post it.

On Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, new SF mayor Gavin Newsom "asked the city clerk to make whatever changes are necessary to assure that marriage licenses are issued without regard to gender or sexual orientation." Further quote from the article:

"A little more than a month ago, I took the oath of office here at City Hall and swore to uphold California's Constitution, which clearly outlaws all forms of discrimination,'' Newsom said. "Denying basic rights to members of our community will not be tolerated.''

I had my doubts about Newsom, but wow. That's just breathtaking.

This morning around 11:00, the first same-sex marriage in the US was performed, followed quickly by more than a dozen others.

The first couple to be married were Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who have been together for fifty-one years. They've been activists for a long time; they founded the lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis in 1955.

There will, of course, be all sorts of legal challenges, and the couples won't (yet) be able to file joint tax returns or anything like that. But all my concerns about backlash, all my carefully reasoned "don't be hasty" arguments, all my concerns about whether the state should be involved in relationships at all—all that is swept aside, at least for the moment, by exhilaration, by the simple reality that this has happened. I'm having a hard time thinking straight, if you'll pardon the expression. I had a momentary wild impulse to go up to SF, find a random guy on the street, propose, and rush off to get married—just to celebrate, just because it's possible. I keep getting all teary about it.

Thanks for the news, Susan!